The Jennifer Lopez on Cartman's hand was really Mitch Connor in disguise and not the real Jennifer Lopez

JVM wrote:

I didn't really see many elements of "Amok Time" besides the very stripped-down idea of 'it's a special time so go back to the homeworld.'

From Butters acting strangely in school, to yelling at everyone (analogous to Spock throwing the soup in the Enterprise), for the plot line getting Butters from Colorado to Hawaii (Spock must return to Vulcan), to being at the ceremony without his parents present (both Spock and Butters), to no outsiders allowed expect for friends of the one going through the ceremony (Bones and Kirk in Star Trek, Kenny in tonight's episode), to Butters feeling less angry once he learned Ben Affleck is not married to Jennifer Lopez (analogous to Spock's feeling himself after he thought he killed Kirk) - so many plot elements of "Going Native" were taken from plot elements of "Amok Time." There was no way M&T could have written tonight's episode without these many references to Amok Time in Star Trek, a show M&T are big fans of.

The Jennifer Lopez on Cartman's hand was really Mitch Connor in disguise and not the real Jennifer Lopez

JVM wrote:

I didn't really see many elements of "Amok Time" besides the very stripped-down idea of 'it's a special time so go back to the homeworld.'

From Butters acting strangely in school, to yelling at everyone (analogous to Spock throwing the soup in the Enterprise), for the plot line getting Butters from Colorado to Hawaii (Spock must return to Vulcan), to being at the ceremony without his parents present (both Spock and Butters), to no outsiders allowed expect for friends of the one going through the ceremony (Bones and Kirk in Star Trek, Kenny in tonight's episode), to Butters feeling less angry once he learned Ben Affleck is not married to Jennifer Lopez (analogous to Spock's feeling himself after he thought he killed Kirk) - so many plot elements of "Going Native" were taken from plot elements of "Amok Time." There was no way M&T could have written tonight's episode without these many references to Amok Time in Star Trek, a show M&T are big fans of.

The setup is similar, yeah, but everything once they're in Hawaii is completely different. I don't feel the Ben Affleck stuff is analogous.

Besides, any real "Amok Time" spoof pits the two best friends in a fight to the death

#1 EDITOR ON THE OFFICIAL SOUTH PARK WIKI ...working on getting back up there :)Favorite Characters: Kenny and family, Wendy, Tweek, Kevin Stoley, Mephesto, Pip (RIP)Favorite Episode: "The List" (s11e14)

The setup is similar, yeah, but everything once they're in Hawaii is completely different. I don't feel the Ben Affleck stuff is analogous.

Besides, any real "Amok Time" spoof pits the two best friends in a fight to the death

True; not a real Amok Time spoof as two best friends were not in a fight to the death together. However my point was that without the elements of Amok Time, there is no logical way M&T could have written Butters without his parents to go from Colorado to Hawaii. There is enough similarity to Amok Time to say both the SP Going Native and ST Amok Time are similar. Once M&T got Butters to Hawaii, then anything goes. It was not a line by line, scene by scene parody of Amok Time, no. But elements of Amok Time were sure prevalent throughout Going Native.

And with all of this, I still give tonight's episode a 10/10. Welcome back, Season 16B

By the way, this whole idea of Amok Time/Going Native came from a comment by InfectedStyles:

InfectedStyles wrote:

Is it just me, or did this episode at least borrow some aspects from "Amok Time" from Star Trek TOS?

I think we can agree that yes, this episode did borrow some aspects of Amok Time

I usually watch online here and i was waiting around, beginning to wonder why it wouldn't upload. My sole speculation was: "did the people running this website actually get offended by this episode!? now they refuse to air this!?"

Huzza for another awesome Butters episode. It's so hard not to love pretty much anything he does in the show,and actually getting up in everyone's face is something that's just far too amusing when he's riled up. As fun as Professor Chaos is, I think Butters himself actually snapping would always have a lot more potential for amusement any time.

Well, that was a disappointment. Which is unfortunate as I try to keep a positive look on an episode even if I'm not too excited about it. Where to start? Butters fighting and arguing was random and the explanation hardly made sense. So his parents spend time in Hawaii and he needs to spend time there to 'chill out'? It felt too OCC to see Butters like this. The idea of the 'natives' thinking they actually were native Hawaiians was a funny one. But that's the thing, funny idea, but the jokes never seemed to hit it. I think I laughed... maybe twice. Even then they were slight chuckles, not the full-on laughter I expect in a SP episode.The jokes simply didn't tickle the funny bone for me. Elvis. The chi-chi drinks or whatever. Golfing at 'travelers'. There was no B story too which I did not enjoy. I wanted some shots of the boys back home, some kind of story happening there but it was only about Butters and Kenny in Hawaii. Then Butters hating Ben Affleck. So random, I did not get that at all! Did not fit into the plot one bit.

Will not be watching again, no need to give it a rating as it's low. Three episodes left.... I sure hope these last 3 are amazing and 10 times better than what we have gotten so far. *sigh*

I love: Stan, Butters, Cartman, Sharon.

I ship: Stan/Cartman <3

Stan: MMOOMM!!Sharon: What is it honey? (gasp!) My baby's killed again!Haa, I love that line.

Well, that was a disappointment. Which is unfortunate as I try to keep a positive look on an episode even if I'm not too excited about it. Where to start? Butters fighting and arguing was random and the explanation hardly made sense. So his parents spend time in Hawaii and he needs to spend time there to 'chill out'? It felt too OCC to see Butters like this. The idea of the 'natives' thinking they actually were native Hawaiians was a funny one. But that's the thing, funny idea, but the jokes never seemed to hit it. I think I laughed... maybe twice. Even then they were slight chuckles, not the full-on laughter I expect in a SP episode.The jokes simply didn't tickle the funny bone for me. Elvis. The chi-chi drinks or whatever. Golfing at 'travelers'. There was no B story too which I did not enjoy. I wanted some shots of the boys back home, some kind of story happening there but it was only about Butters and Kenny in Hawaii. Then Butters hating Ben Affleck. So random, I did not get that at all! Did not fit into the plot one bit.

Will not be watching again, no need to give it a rating as it's low. Three episodes left.... I sure hope these last 3 are amazing and 10 times better than what we have gotten so far. *sigh*

Well, that was a disappointment. Which is unfortunate as I try to keep a positive look on an episode even if I'm not too excited about it. Where to start? Butters fighting and arguing was random and the explanation hardly made sense. So his parents spend time in Hawaii and he needs to spend time there to 'chill out'? It felt too OCC to see Butters like this. The idea of the 'natives' thinking they actually were native Hawaiians was a funny one. But that's the thing, funny idea, but the jokes never seemed to hit it. I think I laughed... maybe twice. Even then they were slight chuckles, not the full-on laughter I expect in a SP episode.The jokes simply didn't tickle the funny bone for me. Elvis. The chi-chi drinks or whatever. Golfing at 'travelers'. There was no B story too which I did not enjoy. I wanted some shots of the boys back home, some kind of story happening there but it was only about Butters and Kenny in Hawaii. Then Butters hating Ben Affleck. So random, I did not get that at all! Did not fit into the plot one bit.

Will not be watching again, no need to give it a rating as it's low. Three episodes left.... I sure hope these last 3 are amazing and 10 times better than what we have gotten so far. *sigh*

Just wondering: are you familiar with the plots and characters of Star Trek, The Original Series? Sometimes watching an episode of South Park without knowing the references can make scenes seem random, when they are actually paying homage to something else. This episode ("Going Native") reminds a lot of people of "Amok Time," the first episode of Season 2 of Star Trek, The Original Series. Perhaps if you watched it, (or re-watched it if you've seen it before), would help you understand "Going Native," as well as getting some of the inside jokes referring to "Amok Time." Here is a link to see "Amok Time" if you have the time. Enjoy http://www.startrek.com/watch_episode/YkIuw3e_5rp0

Some funny parts I liked the cruise ship scene,Elvis was quite funny as was the narration of Kenny writing to the boys back home.

Looking forward to next weeks Halloween episode. On the 29th I am inviting a few mates around and we are watching all the Halloween themed episodes got another one to add now as long as its not a 2 parter.

Kyle: Why? How could you do this? There are people starving in Alabama and you give Cartman a million dollars?

Then came the last 2 and a half minutes Thank you US Coast Guard and the ghost of Elvis

I'm happy that Butters is still kinda Butters. I got a little bit nervous during the previews. Apparently all his anger was due to Ben Affleck. Apparently that's a pretty good reason to be angry.

I was a bit shocked that Kenny didn't die. But I guess he has died so much that so many 'expect' it to happen, and then when he becomes the hero or something, many kinda rave of him again. So I expect more of Kenny as a daredevil..."he's still here!" kind of character for a while to come.

The episode was dry. I'm not going to lie. It had a good story line, and I guess that made it a lot better though. it wasn't an overpowering episode. It'll probably go down as one that many will watch, somewhat like, and then go into the vault for a while.

7.5/10

RTL: I love being a dick to people for no reason. It makes me feel better about how my mom smacks me around with a frozen T Bone steak.